colonelsing

I believe you can defend Thailand and still not think of yourself as Thai. I love Thailand and never considered myself Thai or ever wanted to. I was reading this book about Jim Thompson the silk merchant. It says, " Thompson lived in a Thai house, preferred Thai food, and was passionately interested in anything concerning the country, yet he had never ""gone native"...he had never even learned the language,beyond a few polite phrases (He did make a couple of stabs at it over the years, but finally gave up, claiming, not without some justification, that it was more dependable to work through good interpreters.) However, these attainments are actually not as welcome in Asia as one might suppose: the average Thai reaction to a farang who wholeheartedly adopts their culture is one of mystification rather than admiration, and he is generally looked upon as the misfit he usually is. An anthropologist would say he had kept his cultural identity...but even so he had become as intimately involved in the country as probably any other foreigner living in Thailand, and far more than the 'language experts' and 'cultural affairs' people who had supposedly been trained for the job." Thompson lived in Thailand for 20 years and never learned the language, yet he accomplished more than anyone who has lvied here the same length of time and can speak it fluently. I think the point is a farang doesn't have to become a THai or even learn to speak Thai to live there succuessfully.

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I never worked as volunteer police but did work with regular Thai police in my career and know several volunteers. They do not need work permits. They don't have any and they don't need them because they are working for the police, who are the ones enforcing the laws, at the request of the police. No police volunteer has ever been in trouble over this work permit thing and if you are not a police volunteer why are you worked up about it? I think this is a matter of petty jealousy, where these people are whining, "If I have to have a work permit, why doesn't that guy have to get a work permit?" The fact is right or wrong if it is okay with Thai police, then if some farang doesn't like it, t.s.

Perhaps there is something wrong with me, but the reason I stayed in Thailand was the

people. I think they are basically kind, fun-loving and generous, and I truly enjoyed their company and their culture. And I also found that I could help people in ways I never could in America and I found that it made me feel good. So I guess I am a do-gooder, as some say here, which they think is bad, although these same poeple would probably find fault with my military career and call me a murderer or something so I cannot worry about it. The fact is I came to Thailand originally for work and my farang friends were people I worked with. After I retired and moved to another part of Thailand I had fewer expat friends. Many of the farang I came in contact with were fat, unkempt

drunken sex tourists who couldn't get l--d in a whorehouse with a fistful of fifties in their home country, but because they could purchase some short time bar-girl for a few baht they thought they were Brad Pitt. I am not claiming to be Brad Pitt either, but the point is I did not stay here because it was cheap or because I was horny. I just really like the people. As far as farang go, there are many good ones here too. No matter what problem you have, someone in thai visa forum would always take their own time to help you out and get nothing in return. And this applies to the majority, despite the few who have nothing better to do than insult people and give stupid sarcastic replies.

Finally, I also do believe if you don't like Thailand, then why don't you just leave? Except for the one guy who hates Thais and farangs. He will be miserable anywhere, so might as well be miserable where it is cheaper

If one is truly interested in helping foreigners and Thailand, the Tourist Police Department volunteer position is a good opportunity. I am not aware that they can write tickets, and am surprised if this is true, but perhaps it is. Some of the people writing in on this topic have no actual idea what the police volunteers actually do, so do not pay any attention to that. It amazes me that fat, useless sex tourists advise people to "get a life" instead of becoming a police volunteer. Believe me, wearing a police volunteer uniform will do more to improve the image of foreigners in Thailand than sitting in a bar all day guzzling beer and paying for sex with some bargirl. And as far as having friends, what kind of friends do you want to have, anyway? I know police volunteers with plenty of friends. Most foreigners will appreciate the help given by police volunteers. As for the rest, who cares?

When I was in Thailand I never owned a gun. In America I have quite a few. In Thailand there are just too many complications for a foreigner to own a gun, even though I could have had one in my house if I wanted, or so I was told. As a prely practical issue, no one who knows anything about self-defense will advocate pepper spray, stun guns, or baseball bats as an alternative to firearms for home defense. A well trained guard dog is probably the best substitute, but still not as effective as a gun. My opinion is people should have the right to own a gun, but Thailand is a different country and if one chooses to live there, as I did, I think it is best to not own a gun. That is just my opinion. If gun ownership is that important to you, the best bet is to live somewhere where it is less of a problem to do so. As far as guns in Thailand, they are all over the place. legal and otherwise. And gun deaths are commonplace there, so I must question how so many people there are so oblivious to this. As for the trite cliches like "make love not war, and "real men don't need guns", this kind of babbling has been going on forever and makes just as much sense today as always. Noone hates war more than a soldier. But the fact of life is there has always been war and always will be, and someone has to fight them. And real men sometrimes do need guns. That is just the world we live in. Sad to say. I never thought I would hear this peace love talk from someone named KKK though.

I am wondering about something, and I do not mean to offend anyone but perhaps someone can explain this. I used to read and also write posts to both Chiang Mai forum and Central Thailand forum, as I had connections to both places. I continue to read them both even though I am currently not in Thailand. For some reason, in the CM forum, there are alot of times when a person will ask for help with something and then there are a number of replies which are either sarcastic or downright nasty. Then there are other times when the whole topic is forgotten and then there is alot of political ranting or complaining about Thailand and the Thais and nothing about helping the person with the original question. In the Central Forum I never see this happen. The replies are always helpful and sincere, at least from what I have seen.

This is not to say there are not many people in CM forum who are helpful and sincere, because the majority of the regular contributors are. I am just saying the Central Forum seems to me to be, in general, more mature and considerate. Is this because different kinds of people live there than in Chiang Mai? Or is there some other reason for this?

I do not mean to offend CM people. I love Chiang Mai and many people there are wonderful, but I think maybe some of the people there know what I am talking about.

Turkish Cafe at Kalare bazaar near Pornping Hotel has great doner kebab and other turkish food and also great coffee.

I went to hospital here in US and they told me these medications are neither counterfeit or expired. They are just the wrong medicine. Now they put me on half the dose of atenolol plus a diuretic pill called HDLZ or something like that. Doctor at hospital here says Thai doctor screwed up by not checking to see if medication worked and also said they gave me too high of a dosage to start with. To be fair though, according to my daughter who is an RN, hospital here is screwed up too as they sent me home from ER while my BP was still tooo high.

I am back in US and spoke to nurse here who is in charge of AIDS program at department of corrections. She says there really is a form of AIDS in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia that is more easily spread from women to men and also is more resistant to medication. Myself, I have almost like a phobia of catching this disease and was one of the reasons I had only one girlfriend in the 2 years I was in Thailand. Plus also I really cared for her, but when I first got together with her she agreed to go with me to bangkok Pattaya hospital and have test for HIV and all the other normal STDs which I also took. I dont really trust condoms they sell over there, as I have heard these horror stories about them breaking, but perhaps these are exaggerated so I cannot say. What I will say is that any guy who has sex with anyone in Thailand without precautions, especially with prostitues or bargirls, must be either terribly ignorant and uncaring for other people, or have a death wish.

Thank you everyone for advice. I am 55 years old, and have had high blood pressure for a long time but only recently take medication. I have often thought about the whole issue about storing the pills. I was living in Thailand without aircon so it was always hot where the pills were kept. I thought of putting them in refrigerator but thought maybe that would harm them. Is keeping them in fridge a good idea?

I am in USA but blood pressure medication I take,prenolol, is from pharmacy in Thailand. My blood pressure is still high which maybe is from any number of reasons but I was thinking maybe these pills are counterfeit. I have heard of alot of cases of fake medicine there but I wondered if anyone on forum had this problem.

Thank you Khonwan. am very sorry I never got to meet you. I read much of your posting about farming and such and you obviously are kind and know what you are talking about. Another suck up message I guess according to snakehead. By the way, I never said this story was interesting. I just asked for advice. But nothing about it is made up. Who has nothing better to do than make up problems on the internet? Perhaps you do. After all you have Captain Kirk's picture in your email so obviously you are into fantasy. And for giving compliment to moderator people, I have commanded men for many years and it was always my philososphy to tell people sometime when they do a good job and mostly on this forum I hear complaining. I am sure you would be the type to very quickly jump on your computer to tell people what they have done wrong.

I received some personal messages from kind people but I do not know much about computers to answer them so I will say thank you here. leaving soon, but a few minutes ago I passed a beggar on the street. he was fairly young man.I guess he figured I would give him money as I had money in my hand and was counting it. I did not give him any money, as I was concerned with my own problems and often the beggar thing is some mafia scam as we all know.Then I noticed I was 100 baht short. The thing was I dropped 100 baht out of my pocket and didnt see it. The beggar ran after me and gave me the money. Can you believe tthis? So I gave him 100 baht and after that i went back and gave him another 100 baht not because I am generous but this incident got to me and showed i guess why I really do love Thailand. The majority of people on this forum are very good people, but a few could learn from the beggar.

Things sometime turn out for the best anyway. A friend from my army days heard of my situation and offered me a job in Vietnam, similar to security work I did when I first came to Thailand. I am seriously considering taking the job, as in America I will have to work and the main skill I have learned in my career is how to kill and this is not in big demand in US.

I know there are many errors in this posting but I am not really concerned with it right now. Thank you also to moderator people on this forum. I think you are doing a good job. This is not a suck up message because what would be the point?

Thank you to everyone. I will be leaving soon but maybe someday I will come back. I love Thailand and to be honest never expected to find so many good hearted expats here. Yes I travelled alot in army but mostly to middle east and south america, hardly ever in Asia. So I heard all about perverts and sex fiends here but I think there are as many of those in the rest of the world as there are here, and to be honest it is true there are more Thai perverts and pedophiles heere than there are farang.

I just feel the need to respond to Cynthia. Firstly, I dont really understand what you are saying. I dont really know what a troll is and what is the forest and maigo? I will just say this and Gods honest truth.

I have been with one lady for the whole 18 months I have been in Thailand. She worked in a restaurant and was scarred in her face by motorcycle accident, She is not such a young lady and not beautiful by Thai people standards as they were often mean to her. She cried one time, telling me restaurant was closing, which was also where she lived. I felt bad and told her she could live with me and clean or cook or do something. She said i will not sleep with you and I said that is fine. I did not want her to do that.

Time passed and she never said she wanted to leave, so i asked her about this and she said she was feeling love for me and wanted to be my girlfriend. I thought she was a lovely person also, so I agreed and we became involved.

Since then I have never been with another woman, as I said. All my money goes to make her happy, which also made me happy. But I cannot afford to buy a house. I rent a house in CM but cannoit afford one, but told her I would save money until I could. Also I agreed to take care of her 10 year old niece, who I also love. I took care of her mother alsoa nd bought her an 80000 baht massage machine as she has arthritis. Some months I have put every cent I have into my girlfriends account, as stupid as that is, just to prove I love her and trust her. Now her niece is sad becasue away from her 17 year old brother, so I said he can live with me too. I agreed to marry her last year but she demanded sinsot and party which cost as muchas I make in 6 months so I could not afford it. yet if I even do internet or read a book, she cries and says I dont give her time. I cannot have friends bercause she is jealous of them too. I came here to see things and travel but do not even leave the house without her.

On top of that I have had attacks with my heart where she told me she was angry and didnt care if i died.The last episode whcih led to my leaving as I said because I refused to put all my money in her account again.

The fact is the only thing I am guilty of here is being an idiot. I still have no hard feelings towards her and I will always love her, a fact which is apparently beyond your comprehension. I gave this woman a better life than she ever had , as she was married twice before and has 2 children which she abandoned and which I agreed to adopt even though I have 3 daughters myself.I have also done many things for Thai people which I wont go into here but the fact is I was good to Thailand, as for the most part Thailand was good to me.You say you heard my story before which means some other poor slob has gone through this. There are I am sure many Thai women who are screwed over by farangs. But I believe that many of their problems are result of their own greed and deceit. So you can lie in your own bed or run in the forest or whatever the---- you are talking about.

As for efveryone else thank you and good luck to all. Perhaps I will return and meet some of you, God willing.

Hello everyone. I am in a desperate situation. At least seems like that to me but perhaps other people with more experience with this kind of thing will know what to do, as I am clueless.

I have been with only 1 woman in Thailand. For last 18 months. I love her very much but I cannot understand her. Four times she has tried to kill herself over petty arguments. The other day I took knife away from her for third time. One other time she tied wire around her neck. I have a heart condition so I don't like to argue, but she doesn't care and fights with me anyway. This last time I thought I was having an attack but she says, "I no take you hospital, I die too." and she gets knife from kitchen and I have to fight and take it away from her again while I think I am dying myself.

She would only calm down when I told her I would put money in her account next day. The next day we go to atm and carrefours and i give her 15000 baht, but she is very angry and wants me to put all the money from my bank account into hers. So I cannot keep on with this. I am not a rich man. So I just go out door and get tuk tuk and go to guest house. I emai friend to tell my gf i went to US. Since she cannot read English I have to send it to friend, so she wouldn't lose face I said I went to US because my mother is ill.

I rent house in Chiang Mai and I left all my possessions because I canot bear to go back. I have no car of my own and live where no public transport at night so I am stuck there when she starts in with this. She is Thai and I am farang and she will convince the neighbors I am no good and all my fault and all this.

Now I am waiting for flight which will take about 5 days I am told and on top of everything else I have not checked in on 90 days reprt date to immigration as I stupidly forgot about it. I am supposed to leave at like 7am on the 11th so if I go there early to check in immigration is closed. Is it possible they will not notice this when I check in. I am afraid if I pay fine I will not have enough money to leave.

This was a terribly long posting so I don't blame anyone who didn't bother to read it all, but if someone did and they know what to do I would appreciate any help. I am mostly worried she will hurt herself. She has a 10 year old niece who lives with us and I am very worried for her also. Maybe her suicide attempts were just for attention but many people here do really kill themselves. What should I do? Please don't just write to tell me I am stupid because I already know this. Thanks.

As I have said the last time this subject was brought up,which I thought would be the last time but obviously not,I have experiece with the tourist police which was very positive and I found them to be very polite and helpful.I know both Thai and farang volunteer tourist police and they are very helpful to any tourist or foreigner needing assistance,but this is my experience and other people have their own experiences which apparently were not always positive.As to the guy who says he "knows" the Thai tourist police all hate farang volunteers I happen to know he is wrong about that,which is not hard to understand as his experience with the tourist police consists of them throwing him in jail.

How could anyone seriously consider a pocket knife as a weapon.By the time you got it open you would be dead.A folding tactical knife is another story,but illegal.as far as protection I would not recommend a knife in the city.If you used it you would either get shot or sent to bang Khwan forever.If you stay out of certain areas,Thailand is a pretty peaceful place. As far as self defense against the Thais,they are generally pretty little people so they are not a real threat one on one,but this is the problem here s it is never one on one with Thais and farangs.So just smile and mind your business here and no problem.

These guys,as has already been said,are rangers but in the border area are also the or sor or volunteer defense forces who wear desert camo for some reason and also the border patrol police. Special forces in America means Green berets,but now this term is often used to distinguish any outfit that is not regular army.

This whole discussion is about charity work in Thailand.So whi is elkangaroo or whatever going on about Americans putting their feet on chairs?What is his problem?If I or anyone else wanted too they could cite some examples of Thai people complaining about any group of farangs from any country but what is the point?It only serves to alienate all the other people of the same group who maybe have not done any of this behavior.I am not the boss of this forum or anything else but I think it would be good if people write things that are not about the topic in question but are only offensive and bigoted then they should be deleted.I personally think kangoroo is lying anyway,but whether he is or not I see he did not even admit to wherever he is from so maybe he is not too proud of it.

I have had association with Thai police for a long time and my personal experience has been very positive. I believe if you go through the proper channels someone will be willing to assist you.As with any police agency,I do not feel they will be receptive to you if you tell them you are going to write a screenplay or whatever which portrays the agency negatively.I would suggest however,as a farang,it is advisable not to get involved in conflicts with Thai police especially,but also Thai people in general.

Having said all this,I really believe it is not neccessary to have a Thai police contact to write a fictional screenplay.Many of the most popular and profitable police movies have no real connection to the actual reality of the police agency they portray,so just write it as an entertainment vehicle.Unless it is a work of non-fiction,but this is not what you claim.

If you want to read good fictional stories involving Thai police,check out the novels of John Burdett,Christopher G. Moore and Jake Needham,and you will get all the info you need.Good luck

I don't think the lady is likely to meet so-called nice farang in a bar,and the same is true all over the world.I don't think Thailand is any different from anywhere else in that way.There are plenty of places to meet people.The market,the beach,anywhere there are people really. Usually though when Thai women talk about a nice farang,one of the preprequisites is they have money.Enough to buy them a house and take care of family,etc.I don't think the English teachers here fall into that category if they are making 35 K a month.In fact I think being an English teacher here is one step up from being homeless anywhere else.I am not trying to belittle English teachers.They just don't make very much money.It doesn't make them bad people.

The whole idea of work permits is really to prevent foreigners from taking jobs and therefore money away from Thai people.In reality noone is going to get very upset with foreigners doing volunteer work that helps Thai people.This is just common sense.It was the same principle as with the volunteer tourist police,who also do not need work permit,despite what some people claim in this forum and which people seem to get upset about.I do not understand why some people get emotionally involved with other people's work permoits,visas,etc.

Thank you Khonwan I knew you were the one to ask.I read your whole posting from before about cassava and it is very thorough and helpful

colonelsing

Hello everyone,

I know khonwan is the man to ask about this but if anyone knows answer to this I would be grateful.My girlfriend's sister planted cassava in Mae Wong awhile ago but lost much of it,apparently from lack of water.It is my girlfriend's land,so now she wants to go down to Mae Wong and plant more,either this month or next.My question is,is that a good time to plant cassava? Thanks for any advice

Hello PapaJohn and other people in Chiang Mai as well.I will not be back to Chiang Mai until december but still like to read Chiang Mai forum.I just do not understand why people wish to spend so much time talking about what they hate about other people.There are things people do that I hate,But they were not put on earth to please me.There are things I do,and no doubt most other people do,that someone hates.But there is enough hate in the world already without dwelling on this too much.If one gets so upset about this pidgin english they are going to be angry all the time because it is common here and everywhere else where English and non-English speaking people get together. And if some Thai person says "I go you house",then I know if I say "I go you house " to them they will understand it.

And also for man who got upset because Thai lady asked if his wife was from Pattaya.I believe he had a right to be upset and lady was wrong and ignorant to say this.But man was wrong to say all ladies who work in Pattaya are whores or low-lifes. Perhaps they are just people who need a job.This man obviously had enough money to get to Thailand and live comfortably,so he should not judge people unless he has lived their life. What would this man do for his family,if they did not have money for food or medical care,much less airplane tickets.If there is so much to hate in Thailand,why not go back to your own country where perhaps you will be happier.And Thailand will be happier with less hate.